A Trick that Ends in Death
by kristyndaughterofathena
Summary: Silena feels the only way to redeem herself for betraying her only family is to convince Clarisse to fight in the battle against the Titans. But Clarisse is harder to convince then she thinks. Will she be able to convince the Ares half-bloods to fight or can she figure out a plan B.


_I know I can convince her to help us._

That's what I had said to Percy and now I was regretting my words. Don't get me wrong, my charmspeak has convinced Clarisse to do many things but nothing like coming to fight in a battle that we had a good chance of losing in. Even if this is an impossible task I must succeed. It's the least I can do after all the horrible things I've done.

_No, stop it Silena. _I couldn't beat myself up. Plus, Clarisse is one of my best friends. The only people she'll probably ever listen to is me or Chris. Before I had time to run through in my head how I would convince them to fight, the pegasus descended right in front of the Ares cabin as if knowing my mission.

Right when I had both feet on the ground the pegasus took off and stopped 20ft away as if not wanting to see the scene that was about to happen. _I envy you right now, _was the mental message I sent to the winged horse. He snorted and chewed some grass as if knowing what I was thinking.

I walked up to the door, took a deep breath, and walked in without knocking.

Everyone noticed me except Clarisse and Chris who were in deep conversation. He was the first to notice the silent tension. His eyes met mine.

"Are you even listening to me?" Clarisse said a little louder, anger tinting in her voice. _Great. At least she's in a good mood. _Chris gestured to me.

Clarisse turned. I smiled shyly. At first she looked happy to see me and she stood but then the realization dawned on her and she knew exactly what I was doing here. Her smile faded.

"Percy sent me." I said hoping if she knew the great Percy Jackson needs her, she might consider helping. "And you know why he needs me?" Clarisse asks, standing up. _Well, no. _That wasn't the answer I was expecting, but I stared at her straight in the eyes. Rule no1 when trying to convince someone something. Don't look away. It shows your insecurity. She continues without my answer.

"Because you're losing." Clarisse says plain and simply. This time I cannot help but look down. "And if you're losing and are desperate enough to fly all the way back here to try, and might I say _fail_, to get us fighting then you must be losing pretty bad." She finished a little louder then when she first spoke.

"Clarisse," I start, anger bubbling inside me. "You do realize if we lose, Kronos and his army will come here and kill you, right?" I say as if talking to a six year old, telling them why not to put gum in their friend's hair. "We'll fight back." She says crossing her arms.

I just laugh which seems to make her uneasy. "If the Aphrodite, Athena, Dionysus, Hephaestus, Apollo, Hermes, and Demeter cabins, the gods themselves, Chirons party pony relatives-should I go on?"

"No."

"The Cyclopes', Mrs.O'Lear-"

"Stop!" Clarisse shouts, but I continue."If all of those examples _combined_ are having trouble, what makes you think that just you alone can hold them off?"

The other campers looked at Clarisse expectantly who was enraged, her hands balled in fists. I could tell they wanted to fight, to help, but didn't want an angry Clarisse. "If you're having so much trouble, what would the difference of one cabin make, Huh?" I didn't know what to say. I couldn't say anything. I was too busy trying to swallow down the lump in my throat that was about the size of a golf ball. I had failed.

"Chris," She said through clenched teeth. He looked up. His expression told me he was a lot more nervous than I was. "We're going on guard duty." She wrenched him from the bunk they were sitting on and stomped towards the doors. She leaned close to my face before exiting. "Leave." Her voice was trembling. "Go and save your little city." I was rewarded with a shoulder slam as she stormed out.

"Chris," I caught his arm before he left. He turned with sympathy in his eyes. "Please try and talk some sense into her." He looked out at Clarisse as she screamed and through a large rock at a tree. "I'm sorry Silena, I wish I could." He pulled back his arm and went to follow the angry child of war.

I didn't stay in that cabin any longer. I ran out into cabin 10 and buried my face into my purple pillow. I must've been crying for 30 minutes at least until I rolled over on my back after running out of tears. Why was it all happening like this? I have to betray my family, and then lose Charlie... and now I can't even redeem myself. And it all had to happen to me.

Why me? Why couldn't I be someone else and everything would be okay? I sat up straight so quickly I earned a bruise on my head from Drew's bunk above mine. But I recovered and was already running to the weapons storage. Gods, I hope Clarisse still keeps her extra armour there.

"Everyone up and ready, we're going to fight!" I was satisfied when I heard many cheers as the campers changed into armour and sharpened weapons. Unsatisfied with the fact that Clarisse's red armour was not built for a child of Aphrodite. I pointed at two already suited up campers. "Alex, Jade go get the war chariots ready." I turned to the rest of them.

"Faster morons, Kronos' army is killing them out there!" I walked as best as I could in Clarisse's armour to her bunk and reached for her extra spear. Thank gods it was there. When I straitened back up everyone was ready. They all mounted chariots and I took Alex's hand and mounted his.

He handed me the leather reins and it took two sharp snaps to get the pegasus up and moving. "Where's Chris?" I heard Alex yell over the wind.

"Uh... since he used to work for Kronos, he knows a secret route he's going to take." That sounded so lame but thankfully Alex nodded slowly and focused on the route in the sky again.

After 5 minutes we were pulling up to the empire state building. I could see Mrs.O'Leary fighting a drakon, not doing so well. I did something that seemed like Clarisse. "ARES!" I screamed and raised the spear above my head. The others followed my lead.

I drove my chariot in front of everyone else's. "Okay, six of you come with me to kill the drakon, and the rest help them guard the doors!" Everyone flew to fight yelling battle cries. Alex and I aimed for the face as we drove towards the drakon. When it opened its mouth instead of getting to eat two demigods, it got a mouth full of javelins. The monster hissed and shrieked in pain but unfortunately did not die.

"Ares, to me!" I screamed and the other chariots circled the drakon. We threw weapons but they ended up breaking on the drakon's tough skin. _Just perfect._ I ordered the campers off the chariots and to start fighting with swords. I tried running up and stabbing the drakon in its other good eye but it was starting to get worse. A few campers were sprayed with poison, many knocked aside and one swallowed whole.

Percy and Annabeth jumped on the drakons back and started climbing towards its head but I knew it wouldn't be enough. "You can do it!" Percy screamed at me from on top of the drakon. "A child of Ares is destined to kill!" _But I'm not a child of Ares_ I thought. How was I supposed to kill a drakon? I was only a child of Aphrodite. But I wasn't about to let this monster hurt my family anymore.

"ARES!" I shouted again and charged the drakon. It looked down at me as if deciding the best way to kill me and sprayed its green poison into my face.

I screamed and fell to the ground, grabbing my face. I felt like I have just plunged my face into the River Styx. I heard someone yell my name, Annabeth maybe but it was too hard to focus. I know I'm going to die, the pain is just unbearable and I just wish death would take me fast. I felt hands trying to unfasten my helmet and heard Clarisse screaming at the drakon. Great. She's going to kill me. Maybe literally. She and Chris probably saw the chariots leaving camp.

I felt someone grab my arms. "WHY?" Clarisse yelled in my ear. Um...ow! It was bad enough getting sprayed with drakon poison and now I may have lost my hearing. I heard the monster that has cost me my life scream. "Look out!" Chris yelled. I could see a little better now. Clarisse grabbed her spear that was still in my hand and let go of my arms. I hit the ground with a thump. Ow again!

"YOU WANT DEATH?" She screamed at the drakon. "WELL COME ON!" I didn't have enough strength to see what was going on but I imagined Clarisse charging the horrible monster and easily killing it. She can do some pretty crazy stuff when she's angry. I heard a scream of pain from the monster then running feet towards where I lay. I felt the helmet gently pull away from my poison burned face. Everyone looked shocked but Clarisse. _Surprise _I thought.

"What were you thinking?" Clarisse said as she held my head in her lap. I was grateful she hadn't punched me yet for leading her siblings into battle. Especially since some were killed. I swallowed with trouble. "Wouldn't...listen. Cabin would...only follow you."

"You stole my armour," Clarisse sounded shocked. "You waited until Chris and I were out on patrol; you stole my armour and pretended to be me." She stared down every one of her siblings, one by one, tears glistening in her angry eyes. "And NONE of you noticed?" I felt bad for the children of war. "Don't blame them, they wanted to...to believe I was you."

"You _stupid _Aphrodite girl," Clarisse's tears struck my face, creating ones of my own."You charged a drakon? _Why?_" I thought about everything I had done to them. "All my fault," I started, my tears colliding into Clarisse's. "The drakon, Charlie's death..." I inwardly sobbed. "camp endangered-"

"Stop it!" She cut me off. "That's not true."

I had to tell them. It was everything I was afraid of, the reason I kept on helping Luke but I couldn't die here without them knowing. I opened my palm to show the small silver bracelet in my hand. Mainly the charm on it; the mark of Kronos.

"You were the spy." Percy said in disbelief. Someone should have just stabbed me with a knife. It would have hurt less than this. I tried to be brave and nod. "Before...before I liked Charlie, Luke was so nice to me. He was so...charming. Handsome. Later, I wanted to stop helping him, but he threatened to tell. He promised...he promised I was saving lives. Fewer people would get hurt. He told me he wouldn't hurt...Charlie. He lied to me." I sobbed violently.

Clarisse scowled, but not at me. "Go, help the centaurs. Protect the doors. GO!" Her siblings scrambled away. I took a painful breathe. My vision was starting to blur again. "Forgive me." More of Clarisse's tears. "You're not dying." Her voice was a million miles away. I thought about Charlie. He died a hero, and so did I, I was sure of it. I knew one day we would meet in Elysium. And we would have eternity. I would get to see him again.

"Charlie..." I murmured. "See Charlie..." Then my vision went black and the pain was all gone.


End file.
